June 10, 2006; The Hamma Hamma (SE Olympic Mtns)

Mt. Skokomish (Hamma Hamma Valley):

I still have never found out for sure what the native name €œHamma Hamma€ translates to in English, though have come across at least one unverified anecdotal reference roughly translating the phrase as €œStinky Stinky€.  That unverified translation fits well for describing one€™s scent after tackling this rigorous route.

After two previous trips to this area of the Hamma Hamma valley without skis, I figured it was high time to haul skis up here.  Skip was also eager to scope out Mount Skokomish on skis via the €œLake of the Angels€ basin, though this alpine area was well guarded by a steep snow-less approach beginning at around 1,500-ft elev. and climbing ~3,000 vertical ft in less than 2 miles to reach snowline. 

All in all, we were quite happy with our ski-to-hike ratio of ~40% : ~2,000 vert ft skied after ~5,000+ vertical feet of hiking/trudging/crawling/skinning/climbing/scampering up to the top of ~6,400+ ft high Mount Skokomish.

We donned skis at snowline (~4,300-ft elev) on a southeasterly aspect, shortly after (elev. ~4,900ft) where the snowpack was still mostly over ~4-to-5 feet thick.  The clouds parted nicely upon our arrival at the basin allowing us to scope out a few additional ski  options.  We opted to continue our initial plan of climbing up Mt. Skokomish, ascending through mostly gentle terrain in the basin to reach a high pass. 

Once beyond the ~5,800-ft pass, the final portion of the ascent route led to .  Traversing higher than our ascent route to avoid skiing down a slope with a fairly exposed runout (cliff), we found a much nicer line with good corn turns and a good runout (the upper ~1-2 inches had softened enough by this time to sluff in places, but the snow beneath was still quite firm).  The white-out gave way to visibility once we descended below the lake basin where we enjoyed a ~200 vert ft steep section of excellent corn turns.  The rest of the ski was mostly traversing through the meadows with some occasional turns.  We couldn€™t wait to strap the skis back onto the packs for the fun knee-jarring hike down, including crawling back through the cliffbands on the €œtrail€.  After about 9-1/2 hours out, we were relieved to return to sea level for apres-ski BBQ, & beer :)

Rest of the trip photos are posted here